The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 173

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 173

The Red Queen was making bizarre laughter as she wildly struck down at Laurea Hall with her enormous sword. Each time the sword, as large as the castle’s spire, collided with the hall, green light flashed.

That defensive magic circle that Olivia had set up in advance and activated to maintain wasn’t permanent.

Lucas had bitten and was pulling at the hem of her dress—actually the lower part of her body—but even though he had transformed to twice human size, compared to the current Red Queen, he was no bigger than a puppy and couldn’t draw much attention.

Lillieta and Gideon, who had rushed out of the hall, quickly assessed the situation and discussed. Rita spoke first.

“Big.”

“Right, way too big.”

“She seems about 1.5 times larger than the one we knew.”

“I wonder if her nature or abilities have changed too.”

“It would be foolish to believe only her size increased while everything else stayed the same. Something must have changed.”

“We’ve been lucky so far. The demonic beasts that appeared were exactly as we knew them from the Ash-covered Era.”

“They’re really serious about this. Whether it’s Pascal or the Grand Duke.”

Rita spoke calmly as she transformed Silvergrass. Thanks to the modification into a magic gun, the built-in sniper mode activated and the revolver changed into a sniper rifle.

Gideon looked around the crumbling Imperial Palace Gardens and muttered.

“Once all the nobles evacuate, there won’t be anyone here. Using this place as a battlefield.”

“Look at that size. Are they planning to destroy the entire palace? All the people working in every corner of the palace will die too.”

“…I guess we have no choice but to lure it away.”

“Before that thing builds its ‘kingdom,’ we need to move the battlefield as quickly as possible. To the place we prepared, according to plan.”

Gideon pulled out a hand mirror without complaint. Thanks to Olivia continuously making and distributing them, all Beacon members as well as Tritoma squad leaders now carried these communication devices.

While he quickly issued orders, golden light began gathering at the tip of Lillieta’s gun barrel.

Moment of Twilight.

‘Twelve explosive rounds worth.’

It would have been the limit for Rita Pascal of the past, but for the current Lillieta, it was an output she could fire without burden.

The gathered Ode glowed white as the surrounding air burned with sunset colors and heat shimmer appeared.

Perhaps sensing the Ode rushing in one direction, the Red Queen suddenly looked down. From far above, blood-moon-like eyes stared down.

Lillieta didn’t react or respond. Because Gideon was right beside her now.

Kiiiiaaak?

Making a puzzled sound, the Red Queen changed the direction of the blade that had been striking the dome. She brought it down toward where the dangerous-looking light was gathering.

Gideon instantly leaped out and drew his sword. A sword that looked like a toothpick compared to the demonic beast’s blade, which was several times the size of a human, struck upward.

However, during that brief motion, black energy wrapped around the small sword and expanded it. The blade, now larger than a greatsword, made a clang sound as it parried the Red Queen’s sword.

Kiiiiaaak!

The Red Queen shrieked as if enraged.

While they drew attention, Lucas rushed into Laurea Hall. From now on, he would take Olivia and Seraphina and move to the battlefield Beacon had designated.

And Lillieta fired Twilight.

A small sun wrapped in sunset light shot up into the sky. Its ascending appearance was more like sunrise than twilight.

It skillfully passed through the monster’s flailing arms and fluttering bundle of paper-like hair to pierce its target precisely.

A spot that, in human terms, would be like the tip of a long-grown fingernail or toenail—relatively insensitive and not really felt as part of the body.

So while no sense of injury or pain would be felt, it could make the ‘Red Queen’ become enraged and obsessed with whoever destroyed it.

The red gem embedded in the thorn crown was pierced by golden light and shattered into pieces.

Kyaaaaaaaaaak!

The longest, highest, and sharpest shriek yet burst forth. All the arms attached front and back flailed about, touching the crown. The shattered gem fragments fell and disappeared.

Then, the red eyes fixed on Lillieta, filled with rage. Even the eyeballs turned red as all the blood vessels in the whites burst.

It was a chilling sight, but Rita, accustomed to such things, wasn’t startled. Having fired Twilight and immediately deactivated sniper mode, she calmly extended her arm to Gid.

“Let’s go.”

“I hated this part and wanted to just fight here.”

“I agreed to take on being the Red Queen’s obsession target. Don’t complain about an already decided strategy.”

“Sigh…”

Gid sighed and lifted her up. Light purple lace settled like foam over his black formal wear and cloak.

Kyaaaaaaak!

The Red Queen bent toward them. Gideon shot out like a fired bullet while holding Lillieta.

Crossing the garden, vertically leaping up the Palace Wall, then checking the path to their destination.

By now the sun had completely set. Night had come to the sky.

People who hadn’t yet noticed the disturbance were enjoying the full festival. The monster’s shrieks were drowned out by fireworks and parade music.

Bells rang out from the palace’s spire. The bells that would ring when the founding declaration was made after the succession ceremony. The bell-ringer seemed unaware that the succession ceremony had been interrupted and was working at the scheduled time.

Simultaneously, paper lanterns carrying people’s wishes rose from all over the city.

Yellow, vermillion, red—colorful lanterns floated up toward the sky from between the city’s buildings, gently illuminating the night. They embroidered an additional starry sky over the ground where street lamps and magic lights bloomed.

It was a fantastic sight, but Lillieta wasn’t looking that way.

“Much bigger than expected.”

She whispered quickly while resting her arm on his shoulder and watching the Red Queen behind them.

“Even if we make her move along the main road, all the buildings on both sides will be destroyed. We need to make her fly after us.”

“That won’t be easy.”

“I’ll make footholds. What I conceived for fighting Malefic.”

“Then that’s enough.”

The Tritoma Knights, who had received orders and scattered throughout the city, were evacuating citizens between the palace and the target location, but they couldn’t expect perfect evacuation. It was chaotic during the festival too.

They had to lure the enemy to the battlefield as safely as possible.

‘In that sense, the Red Queen has some advantages.’

The intelligence of demonic beasts varied greatly.

Doppelgangers had intelligence comparable to humans, while Krakens and Crawlers were closer to mindless beasts. Mimics basically moved on instinct but had the intelligence typical of hunting animals.

In the Red Queen’s case, she had intelligence closer to human than beast. It’s just that intelligence belonged to a madwoman.

That crazy queen, once fixated on something, would become extremely obsessed with it and wouldn’t pay attention to anything else until she destroyed or devoured her obsession target.

However, when the Red Queen was obsessing, you absolutely must not injure her.

The moment she saw blood, the Red Queen would stop obsessing, deploy her ‘kingdom,’ summon card soldiers, and prepare for battle.

‘Not knowing this, they attacked recklessly at first, and card soldiers poured out endlessly, killing so many people. To the point where there were no survivors within the kingdom’s radius.’

In the Ash-covered Era, ruins left by Red Queen kingdoms created this way were everywhere.

Even the Last Line of Defense had partially collapsed due to the Red Queen. It was what made Command decide to subjugate that crazy queen as quickly as possible.

At that time, Beacon received information about the Red Queen and defense force combat data from Command, studied it, and set out on a planned subjugation.

Back then, they first created a target for the queen to obsess over, then lured the Red Queen to a place where she could deploy her kingdom and fought there. It was quite an effective strategy.

They didn’t know what other abilities the Red Queen, now larger than in the Ash-covered Era, might have, but for now, same as back then.

Kyaaaaak!

The Red Queen approached them, dragging her enormous skirt and tearing up the garden. Her bloodshot eyes remained fixed on Lillieta.

Gideon leaped from atop the palace fortress wall while holding her. Rita turned her body from looking backward to aim at the empty air where Gideon would fall.

[Notice: Night vision function activated.]

[Notice: Stored cartridge ejected.]

[Use: Formation Round – Foothold]

Silvergrass, modified into a magic gun, had a cartridge storage function.

The significance of this function was that pre-made magic bullets could be maintained and stored even when the user’s concentration was broken, then ejected and fired when needed.

In preparation for demonic beast appearances during Geunkuk-je, Rita had made and stored various bullets up to the cartridge’s limit.

Among them, a bullet made for aerial combat in case Malefic appeared was fired from the gun barrel.

Golden light crossed the night sky, then burst like fireworks at a certain point, forming a wide foothold shape.

It was a ‘formation round’ created by applying recent shape-crafting practice to a defense round. A magic bullet that formed specific structures at the impact point instead of a defensive barrier.

It was also a new unique technique that had amazed all the Tritoma magic gunners when she created it on the spot during their training.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————